Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-02-04

Islands, where there are 10000 people,
IO2, 900 have already become the dupes
of this Christian religion, and il things go
on as they are now going on, and if the
influence of this great hallucination of
the ages cannot be stopped, it will swsl-
low the globe. SupposiDg, then, that
| Christianity is the delusion of the centu-
ries, as some have pronounced it, pro-
pose this morningto show you what has
been accomplished by this chimera, this
fallacy, this hoax, this sWii die OF the
ages. II
And in tbs first place, l remark, that
lIthis delesion of the Christian rellglen mas
made wonderful ansformatons CT hu--
man character. | will go down the aisle
of any church in Christendom, and will
| IND on either side that aisle those who
| were once predicate, protane, unclean Of
speech. and unclesn Of action, drunken
| and lost But by the power OF this delu-
sion of the Christian religion they have
been completely transformed, and now
they are kind am ami .ble and genial aud
loving and useful. Everybody sees the
change. Under the power of this great
h1llucinstion they have quit their former
associates, and whereas they once found
their Chief del ght among those who gam-
bled and
sWORE AND RACED HORSES,
now they ind their Chief Joy among those
who go 20 prayer meetings aud churches,
so complete is the delusion. Yea, their
own families have noticed 1.-THE wife
has noticed it. The children have noticed
it. The money that vent for rum row
goes for books and Tor clothes end for
education. He is new man. All who
know him say there has been wonderful
change. What is the cause OF this
charge? This great halIucination of the
Christian religion. There is as much
differeuCa between what he is now and
what he once WIS, as between G. rose and
a nettle. as between dove aud vulture,
as between day and night. Tremendous
delusion.
Admiral Fsrrsgut, one Of the most ad-
mlred men of the American navy, early
became victim of this Christian
delusion, and, seated, not long
before his death, at Long Branch,
he was giving some friends an
account of his ea-ly life, lie said: "My
father went down in behalf of the United
States government TO put an end to
Aaron Burr's rebellion. | was a cabin
boy ard went along with him. l could
swear like an old salt. l could gamble
in every style of gambling. | knew all
the wickedaess there was at that time
abroad. One day my father Cleared
everybody out of the cabin except my
self, and locked the door. He said:
David, what are you going to do?
What are you going to be!' Well |
said, farher, | am going to follow the
sea- Follow the sea. and be poor,
miserable, drunken sailor, kicked aud |
cuffcd ab ut the world and die of 8 fever
in foreign hospitalf' 'Oh! no. said,
father, l VIII not be that; l will tread the
quarterback and command, as you do
M, David my father said; mo, David,
a person that has your principles and |
your bad hab IS will n yer tread the quar-
ter-deck or command My father went
out and shut the door sitter him, and | t
said then; q will change, l will never
swear again, / will never drink again, |
will never gamble again; and, gentlemen,
by the help If God have kept those three
vows to this time. | soon after that be-
came Cnrlstian, aud that decided nay
fate f3r time and for eternity"
Another captive of this great Christian
delusion! There goes Saul Of Tarsus on
horseback at full galop. Whtre is he
going? To destroy Christians He wants
no better play-spell than to stand and
WATCH THE HATS
and coats of the murderers who are mas
sacreing Gods children. There gees the
same man. This time he is afoot
Where is he going now? Going on the
road to Ostia TO die for Christ. They
tried to whip it out of him, they tried to
scare it out of him, they thought they
would give him enough of it by putting
MIN into windoWleSs dungeon and
keeping him on small diet, and
denying him cloak, and con.
1emning him as criminal, and
rowling at him through the street; but
hey could not freeze it out of him, and
hey could not sweat it out of him, and ,
hey could not pound it out of him, so ,
hey tried the surgery of the sword, and
)ne summer day In Go he was deCapitated
Perhaps the mlghtiest Intellect of the
5000 years of the worlds existence hood
Vinked, cheated, cajOled, duped by the ,
Christian religion All! that is the re- ,
thing about this delusion of !
it overpowers the strongest
ntellects. Gather the critics, secular s
md religious, of this century together,
Ind put vote to them as to which is the $
greatest book ever written, and by large +
nsjority they will say paradise Lost. {
Who wrote paradise Lost?" One of the 8
ools who believed in this Bible, John !
Milton. Benjamin Franklin surrendered ,
o this delusiun, if you may Judge from s
he letter that he wrote to Thomas Paine +
Begging him to destroy the "Age of R5a- T
on" in manuscript and never let it go c
nto type, and writing afterward, in his G
Id days: "Of this Jesus of Nazareth | q
AVE t" say that the system of morals He 7
eft and the religion He has given US are =
he best things the world has ever seer +
n is likely to see" Patrick Henry, the c
leCtric =
CHAMPION OF LIBERTY, f
by this deluslon, so I
hat he says: "The book worth t
IL other books put together is /
he Bible" Benjamin Rush, the lead c
NC psychologist aud anatomlst of his day,
he great medical scientist-what did ne ,
ay? 1.-THE only true and perfect religion =
$ Christianity" Isaac Newton, the Z
eading philosopher of his time-what {
i'd he say? That man surrendering to ;
his delusion Of the Christian religion, /.
rying out: "The sublimest philosophy q
N earth is the philosophy of the Cos !,
el." David Brewster, at the pronuncia- y
ion of whose name every scientist the :.
World over bows his head, David Brew :
ter saying: 80, this religion has been a =
reat light to me, very great light all =
ny days" President Theirs, the great L
'reHch statesman, acknowledging that he .
rayed wher he said: az invoke the Lord u
rod in whom am glad to believe" Da-
id Livingst me, able to conquer the lion, y
bic to conquer the panther, able to con- !,
uer the. savage, yet conquered by this :,
elusl9n, this hallncinatiOn, this great v
' indie of the ages, so when they find p
i'm dead they find him on his knees u
uillinnn L Gladstone the Strnnno.4 In $